Bank Of Ireland Warns Money Withdrawn During IT Blunder Will Be Debited As Online Services Restored

Wednesday, 16 August 2023 10:22

By Caoimhe Harney

In some towns the queues were so big Gardaí had to control them.

Bank of Ireland’s mobile app and 365online services have been restored after a massive technology break-down allowed customers who have no money in their accounts to get access to funds.

This prompted huge queues at ATMs around the country last night, with people mistakenly believing they were getting access to free cash.

In some towns the queues were so big Gardaí had to control them.

Bank of Ireland said this morning it’s mobile app and 365online have now been restored following the blunder as it apologised to customers.

Bank of Ireland insisted that any money taken from accounts where there are no funds will show up as a debit, and essentially be treated as an unauthorised overdraft.

Socialist Party TD Mick Barry said this morning that it would be wrong if the Bank of Ireland ATM glitch crisis ends up costing the taxpayer and not the bank.

Reports are growing this morning of Gardai having been mobilised across the country to monitor queues and to block people from queuing at ATMs after news broke of the glitch.

Deputy Barry asked this morning as to how many Gardai were mobilised, whether this involved overtime payments and how much these overtime payments will cost the taxpayer.

He said: "It was interesting to see how many Gardai were mobilised and at what speed when queues began to form at the ATMs. Many communities that suffer from problems with anti social behaviour will wish that they could get a response from the Gardai that is even half as speedy as that.

"But what I really want to know is the level of Garda resources deployed on this issue last night, whether some of that deployment is going to be paid for from the Garda overtime budget and whether the Government are going to allow those extra costs be paid for by the taxpayer while Bank of Ireland - a privately owned company which made more than €1bn in profit in the first six months of this year - pay no extra charge whatsoever."

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